


it's much too late to talk the knife out of their hands

by likewinning



Series: little beasts [21]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 09:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4872334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likewinning/pseuds/likewinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>If any of the kids Jason used to know had any idea what he was doing now, it would scare the shit out of them.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's much too late to talk the knife out of their hands

If any of the kids Jason used to know had any idea what he was doing now, it would scare the shit out of them.

Right _now_ , Dick's murmuring instructions in his ear, telling him which chemicals they're going to use and why, which ones make the prettier flames, like some kind of fucked-up chemistry teacher.

Not that Jason ever made it to chemistry.

Just a few minutes ago, Dick let Jason take point, let him gut some guy that Bruce wanted dead for - something or other. Jason's stopped asking, never really did to begin with; Bruce explained that it was a living, and Jason -

Jason kind of lives for that feeling of blood on his hands, the way his heart starts going eight hundred miles a minute, same as Dick lives for the smell of smoke as everything turns to ashes around them.

Dick does a perfect triple backflip off the balcony of the building, lands on his feet and shouts for Jason to jump down.

"I'll catch you," Dick promises, and it's not that Jason doesn't believe him, but he wasn't born with Dick's grace, wasn't born with - anything, far as he can tell, that should've brought him here, except something heavier than bloodlust. Bruce saw it in him right away, and maybe it took Dick longer, but now -

"Little brother," Dick tells him, wrapping an arm around Jason's shoulder after Jason climbs down the fire escape instead of jumping. He leads Jason away - slowly; Dick still wants to watch the show - from the mess they just made, smelling like candy and chemicals. "I wouldn't have let you fall."

"Yeah," Jason says. "I know."

They stop on the curb not too far away so they can watch everything burn, and Jason feels Dick getting hard against him.

"Dickie," Jason says later. They're in an all-night diner, waiting for Bruce's driver to come pick them up. Dick's making his way through a gigantic slice of blueberry pie while Jason glances around to see if anyone he used to know is in here right now.

"Do you ever think about what you'd be like if, you know, Bruce hadn't found you?" Jason asks.

Dick licks the whipped cream from his lips, looks at Jason a minute before he says, "Nope." He drags Jason into the alley behind the diner and they knock into each other for a while until Dick gets bored, presses his bloody mouth to Jason's and asks, "You mean, do I ever wish I didn't like that so much? Not for a second."

When Bruce finally shows up, he takes one look at the blood on their clothes and sighs. "One day," he says. "You two will both learn what I mean when I say _subtle_."

He doesn't seem to complain when Jason sits on his lap the whole way home, though.


End file.
